The Upaniṣads
उपनिषद्
Also written: upanishads · 108 upanishads · principal upanishads · vedanta · mahavakya · उपनिषद्
Upa-ni-ṣad: to sit down near. The word describes the situation — a student seated close to a teacher, receiving what is not shouted across a hall. The Upaniṣads are the fourth and final layer of the Veda, and they are called Vedānta, the end of the Veda, in both senses: the last part, and the conclusion.
How many
The Muktikā Upaniṣad lists 108. Of these, ten are commented on by Śaṅkara and are called the principal Upaniṣads; adding Śvetāśvatara, Kauṣītaki and Maitrāyaṇīya gives the thirteen usually treated as the classical set. The remainder group into Sāmānya (general), Yoga, Sannyāsa, Śākta, Vaiṣṇava and Śaiva Upaniṣads.
| Upaniṣad | Veda | Known for |
|---|---|---|
| Īśa | Śukla Yajur | 18 verses; the world pervaded by the Lord; action and renunciation reconciled |
| Kena | Sāma | 'By whom is the mind sent forth?' — that which the mind cannot think but by which mind thinks |
| Kaṭha | Kṛṣṇa Yajur | Naciketas and Yama; the chariot of the self; 'arise, awake, and stop not' |
| Praśna | Atharva | Six questions on prāṇa, the syllable Om and the person |
| Muṇḍaka | Atharva | Higher and lower knowledge; the two birds on one tree; 'satyameva jayate' |
| Māṇḍūkya | Atharva | Twelve verses; the four states of consciousness and the four mātrās of Om |
| Taittirīya | Kṛṣṇa Yajur | The five sheaths; 'brahmavid āpnoti param'; the graduation address |
| Aitareya | Ṛg | Creation from the Self; 'prajñānaṁ brahma' |
| Chāndogya | Sāma | 'Tat tvam asi'; Śvetaketu; the honey doctrine; Sanatkumāra and Nārada |
| Bṛhadāraṇyaka | Śukla Yajur | The largest; Yājñavalkya and Maitreyī; 'neti neti'; 'ahaṁ brahmāsmi' |
The four mahāvākyas
One great sentence is drawn from each of the four Vedas. Together they state the entire position of Vedānta.
| Mahāvākya | Sanskrit | Meaning | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prajñānaṁ brahma | प्रज्ञानं ब्रह्म | Consciousness is Brahman | Aitareya Up. 3.3 — Ṛgveda |
| Ahaṁ brahmāsmi | अहं ब्रह्मास्मि | I am Brahman | Bṛhadāraṇyaka Up. 1.4.10 — Yajurveda |
| Tat tvam asi | तत्त्वमसि | That thou art | Chāndogya Up. 6.8.7 — Sāmaveda |
| Ayam ātmā brahma | अयमात्मा ब्रह्म | This Self is Brahman | Māṇḍūkya Up. 2 — Atharvaveda |
What they actually do
The Upaniṣads are not a creed. They are almost entirely made of questions — a student asks, a teacher answers, and the answer is frequently another question. Naciketas refuses wealth and long life in order to ask what happens after death. Maitreyī asks her husband what use wealth is if it cannot make her immortal. Nārada, master of every science, tells Sanatkumāra that he knows all the texts and still grieves.
उत्तिष्ठत जाग्रत प्राप्य वरान्निबोधत।
uttiṣṭhata jāgrata prāpya varān nibodhata
Arise, awake, and learn by approaching the excellent ones.
In this section
The principal Upaniṣads, one by one
What each of the thirteen classical Upaniṣads contains, its central teaching, and its best-known passage.
The Yoga Upaniṣads
Twenty Upaniṣads devoted to yoga — nāḍī, cakra, prāṇa, kuṇḍalinī, nāda and the states of samādhi — including the Yoga Kuṇḍalinī, Yoga Śikhā, Nādabindu and Haṁsa Upaniṣads.
The sources of knowledge in Sanātana Dharma
The complete library: Nigama and Āgama, śruti and smṛti, the four Vedas with their four layers, the six Vedāṅg…
Śruti — that which was heard
What apauruṣeya means, how the Veda was preserved syllable-perfect for millennia without writing, and why śrut…
Smṛti — that which was remembered
The vast human-authored body: Vedāṅga, Itihāsa, Purāṇa, Dharma Śāstra, Sūtra, Darśana, Āgama and Kāvya — deriv…
Nigama and Āgama — the two revealed streams
The Vedic and the Tantric revelations: their different forms, their different eligibility rules, why every tem…
The four Vedas
Ṛgveda, Yajurveda, Sāmaveda and Atharvaveda — what each contains, the priest each belongs to, its śākhās, and …
Ṛgveda
The oldest surviving text of the tradition: 1,028 hymns in ten maṇḍalas, its structure, its great hymns, and w…
Last revised 2026-08-16. Corrections are welcome — see how this site is written.